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Stewart Cohen

Retail founder

By South African Index Editorial Desk · Published

Illustrative placeholder portrait; this is not a photograph of the person.
Illustrative placeholder; no verified photograph available.: Domdomegg · Source · CC0 1.0. Resized and converted to WebP for this site.

Stewart Cohen co-founded Mr Price with Laurie Chiappini. The pair met in 1979 and opened the first Mr Price Factory Shop in Klerksdorp in 1985. [1][2]

Biography

Mr Price’s company history says Cohen and Chiappini met while working at separate clothing retailers in 1979 and developed a shared retail vision. [1]

They opened the first Mr Price Factory Shop in Klerksdorp in 1985. The business grew around a value-retail proposition. [1][2]

In 1991 Cohen and Chiappini acquired control of the group from BOE. Mr Price’s later reporting continues to identify them both as the group’s founders. [2]

Key contributions

Co-founded Mr Price and opened the first factory shop in 1985. [1]

Acquired control of the group with Laurie Chiappini in 1991. [2]

Career timeline

  1. Met Laurie Chiappini and began developing the business concept. [1]

  2. Opened the first Mr Price Factory Shop in Klerksdorp. [1]

  3. Acquired control of the group from BOE with Chiappini. [2]

Associated organisations

Sources

  1. Mr Price Group, The Mr Price Story: 40th Birthday. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-25. ↩
  2. Mr Price Group, Integrated Report 2021, 2021-04-03. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-25. ↩